I have just bought an Olympus E-3 two weeks ago and I though I would share my thoughs on how great the new camera is.

I have been an Olympus camera owner for almost thirty years. My first non Olympus camera was the Mimolta Hi-Matic G. Since then I owned one OM-1, two OM-4, first digital C-3000, C-5050; jumped to digital SLR, the E-500; then recently the E-3. I like Olympus because of their oddity innovation yet remarkably fine quality and performance.

Nikon D300 is the only other camera that I highly considered before I bought the E-3. I have gone to the local store in Houston with my own CF flash memory for test shots with the E-3 and D300. Ultimately the E-3 win my decision mainly on cost and the number of Olympus lenses I have already owned.

Without being bias, I am so glad I picked the E-3. It is such a finely built camera with solid feel. The features I loved the most is the built in immage stabilization and the blazingly fast 11 point focus. The IS allows me to sandwich mount a macro extension tube or 2X teleconverter on any of my lenses and still work with chasis IS. This won't work with any lens based IS or VR such as Nikon and Canon. In the past two week, I found that I can take shots that I never could with my E-500. The vivid color setting give me a brilliant and vibrant color that completely blow me away. Personally, I think Nikon color tone, especially D40 - D60, are way overly saturated. Lastly the swivelled live screen adds another dimension even though I only used it on several low angle shots.

Canon and Nikon get all the inks, but I think the E-3 get all the shots. There it is, my review...

I've got a C-3000 and I still love that little camera! It's only a 3.3MP, but it's a great little camera to have around for web photos and stuff to go on eBay The experience with that Olympus almost made me go for the 510 when choosing a DSLR.

The learning curve was suprisingly not bad. The button at first seem overwhelmingly scatterred but thet are clearly labelled. The navigation screen provide 80% of the popular tasks. I did dig into the menu just to see the burried settings. The links below have some of my test flower and butterfly shots with the E-3.

I think it is great to have another non big two (Canon-Nikon) camera owner. The E-3 is indeed a super camera.....I think the biggest downside to the Nikon high end cams is the price. I too wanted a D300 but settled for the 40D price being a huge factor and some features on the D300 I would never use.

But I really like the E-3 and having lenses already much of been a big factor too.